Neil Fraser
September 13, 2004
INTERESTING week. The 'Sunday Times' story - "Low-cost houses for elite suburbs: housing revolution will see families from different income groups living in the same areas" must have shattered the weekend peace of some northern suburbanites.
The relieved poor and badly housed, on the other hand, started planning their move to the northern suburbs. Indignant rumblings emerged about property values being negatively impacted on and the fact that there isn't actually much land available for such development anyway was floated, but then the Minister spoilt it all by saying that she had been quoted out of context. "The government has no intention of building low-cost homes in upmarket suburbs," she said. Somehow the real and critical debate has been allowed to die!
The South African Cities Network (SACN) (www.sacities.net) is a public sector network of the nine major cities in the country that encourages the exchange of information, experience and best practices in urban development and city management. It has recently published its first State of the Cities report 2004 which Andrew Boraine, the Chair of the SACN and CEO of the Cape Town Partnership, used as the basis for his keynote address at our Cities in Change conference.
Here are some random, but relevant extracts from the SACN report to put the housing issue into perspective:
- Much of South Africa's population was historically excluded from the benefits of life in the country's largest cities. Black residents were marginalised into under-serviced ghettos on the edges of cities where they were geographically, materially and psychologically distanced from the opportunities and advantages ordinarily associated with city life. By the end of apartheid the key feature of South African cities was inequality.
- Inequality is not only felt in distribution of income. Spatial analysis shows that increasing numbers of residents are taking up occupancy in informal settlements on the margins of cities, far from work opportunities. In 2001, 36,8% of city residents going to work or school (i.e. within the nine SACN network cities) made the journey on foot. By contrast, only 25,4% made use of a bus or minibus taxi.
- Surveys show that the perceived quality of life is declining amongst black residents, while increasing among white residents.
- The apartheid city was consciously designed to separate races and classes into distinct segments of the city. Poor, and especially poor black residents, were pushed to the margins of the city. With rigorously enforced apartheid laws on residential location and movement, they were given no option but to live in sprawling, squalid dormitory townships or undifferentiated matchbox houses. In general, these were relatively poorly serviced with infrastructure and urban amenities and were virtually devoid of work opportunities or shopping and entertainment facilities.
- A large part of the city was set aside for white residents. The size of this slice was generally out of proportion to the numbers of the white population. White residential areas were generally well laid out and well serviced tree-lined suburbs, conveniently located close to employment and major urban facilities.
- There was a net increase of 735 627 informal dwellings not in back yards between 1996 and 2001 signalling a substantial growth in the total number of informal settlements.
- The absolute number of households without formal shelter increased by 264 649 between 1996 and 2001.
- A disturbing trend is the increase in numbers of households sharing a single room in the SACN cities. In 1996, 8,7% of all households shared a single room; by 2001 this had doubled to 16% of all households. The greatest increases were in Johannesburg, eThekwini and Cape Town.
- The apartheid nature of the nine SACN cities remains. And research shows that the race/space divides that mark our cities are not being addressed rapidly enough.
- At best, cities may not be seen as anything but places where people have an excess of a bundle of fixed needs. The real significance of cities, as sites of social transformation, in which individuals, families and communities transit, through a generation of life cycles, into more empowered people, better social classes and good neighbourhoods, may go unrecognised and unutilised.
- At worst, the social disparities that were the hallmark of the apartheid city may remain in perpetuity. And poor social circumstances for the majority may translate directly into a lack of commitment to city life.
The report concludes by highlighting some six challenges faced by South African cities:
- Managing urban populations
- Becoming more productive cities
- Building more inclusive cities
- Becoming more sustainable cities
- Deepening governance, and
- Putting it all together
The last challenge is spelt out as follows:
The apartheid city was defined by a political economy of space that supported a few, well-located and increasingly wealthy white residents at the expense of the excluded, spatially marginalised and increasingly poor majority. Over the last 10 years municipalities and the partners have done a huge amount to unwind this inherited reality.
But the apartheid city remains today, with many core features intact. The next decade of democracy must see a systematic strategy of city transformation. This will take clear vision, careful planning and sustained effort.
When and where necessary, decisive actions such as bold interventions in relation to publicly owned land may be essential in unlocking a host of further development possibilities. But mostly it will take a new willingness for all stakeholders to enter developmental partnerships in which they are each prepared to think outside the box of their traditional powers and functions and work collectively to accomplish agreed city strategies.
It is the accomplishment of agreed city strategies particularly in relation to the provision of inner city housing that I believe must now be the focus of our (ie public and private sectors) attention. I say particularly, because of the enormous impact that the provision or lack of appropriate housing has on so many other critical aspects of the inner city and its economy.
How do we meaningfully address the huge historic imbalances that the SACN report highlights, given the tension between urban regeneration and the provision of affordable accommodation for the urban poor? A number of speakers at the Cities in Change conference - Andrew Boraine, Murphy Morobe, and Steve Topham - highlighted this question. With 2010 just down the road, the answer becomes even more pressing - watch for "Cities in Change - The Sequel"!!!
